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Same with wannabee photographers.
They THINK they are good, until they start comparing the skills and experience of a good pro tog.

Funny, some pro photographers are good, some are not, but I don't remember ever thinking "I can't be that good" - and in particular I have never thought "I can't be that good unless I'm a pro". Racing drivers may be different as that is a very expensive sport. For most of us, we really can't be that good unless someone else is paying for us to break cars. In some photographic fields it is necessary to be a pro as the gear costs too much - or be very rich to start with, but most still photography is within the reach of many of us.

In another life, I used to give people demonstration runs on a racetrack.
.

I'd be keen

On topic though, I enjoy this as a hobby, nothing too serious, as others have said this is by no means my income. Yes I have a Facebook page, purely for photos I want to share to people over and above family and friends (I don't add randoms), same reason I have a Flickr and 500px accounts.

....
Sometimes i wonder what the future of photography will be, is it an art that has kind of become cheapened in the sense that so many can do it....

I reckon some talented people have used the English language as an art, to educate or entertain. That art isn't cheapened 'cause most of us 'round 'ere speak English. (just more of my Gibberish. At least I'm not a giraffe yet!)

The race car theory - Yes every one has cars but the difference is there are only so few opportunities to actually race your car professionally. Where every man, woman, child and dog has a camera and can easily set up a week end warrior business / work from home or their car, and then flood the market with imagery hoping to strike it rich in an all ready crushed, bashed and deflated industry that has NO regulation outside of the professional news media side.

I don't think EVERYONE wants to be a photographer. There must be at least 1 or 2 that don't, some where.

JJ

Well, that I know of, there must surely be at least one other(apart from me).

No aspirations to make money from my images, and haven never tried too from day one.

Then again, I had no aspirations to make money from transport whilst not actually transporting any goods either, but that's where I've ended up.

People change and times change, I have a feeling that at some point I may end up making money from photography tho.

I think the interesting point made was about the tools used to make photography easier to achieve now.
This makes it easier to turn otherwise lame photographers into interesting photographers. And not because they can capture great images, but because it's easy to montage images into anything you like nowadays.
Cut and paste a few layers of external content into your 'photograph' and you can get instant brilliant photographs without any of the effort that it used to require.

Phil is right !..........if you do not automatically fall into the category of "photographer" , by default, you are a would-be masterchief (although some of those guys admitted that they had NEVER cooked beef or salmon ! they must be more delusional than the "photographers")

It is both much harder and much easier to do something exceptional nowdays. Harder because everyone can do it and easier for the same reason. It just takes originality, but that is a rare thing. In the past the "pro" could rely on arcane skills and get by with that. No more. It must be tough being a pro who just relies on photographic skills now. There are a million skilled photographers out there.

Phil is right !..........if you do not automatically fall into the category of "photographer" , by default, you are a would-be masterchief (although some of those guys admitted that they had NEVER cooked beef or salmon ! they must be more delusional than the "photographers")

Well, obviously what we need is a new reality show MasterIdolPhotographer.

After all, everyone wants a free ride to the top without the hard slog to build a solid business.

First week's assignment would be have to be Giraffes....

Take a whole lot of people, give them a random photo and ask them to recreate it complete with photoshop.

Or give them pictures and ask them to identify the ISO, shutter speed and aperture.

Hey, this is starting to get legs, we could make millions out of this! We could even give the photographer their own breakfast photography show.

Here's my take at the marketing...

Is your kid hungry and won't eat veggies? Does your husband hate your cooking? We have a solution for you...take a picture of them. They won't get any less hungry but at least you can make millions from the photo.

Jane Smith - I didn't have a job and we were battling to make ends meet. Then I won MasterIdolPhotographer and my life has changed. Now we have a loan for $20,000 of camera equipment we can't pay and we're still poor, but I take better photos than before of our kids. Thanks MasterIdolPhotographer

Take a whole lot of people, give them a random photo and ask them to recreate it complete with photoshop.

Or give them pictures and ask them to identify the ISO, shutter speed and aperture.

Hey, this is starting to get legs, we could make millions out of this! We could even give the photographer their own breakfast photography show.

Here's my take at the marketing...

Is your kid hungry and won't eat veggies? Does your husband hate your cooking? We have a solution for you...take a picture of them. They won't get any less hungry but at least you can make millions from the photo.

Jane Smith - I didn't have a job and we were battling to make ends meet. Then I won MasterIdolPhotographer and my life has changed. Now we have a loan for $20,000 of camera equipment we can't pay and we're still poor, but I take better photos than before of our kids. Thanks MasterIdolPhotographer

Ah yes, and your first $500,000 goes direct to the MasterIdolPhotographer organisers as you signed a contract during Auditions, and after that you get about 5% of all bookings.

"It is one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it is another thing to make a portrait of who they are" - Paul Caponigro

How's it going Andrea1?
Think your thread has been hijacked by mass media.
I've got a camera, I take photos, now how do I get onto that new T.V. show, Apprentice Photographer Blocks Masterchef's Idol Voice.

I think the general drift is that anyine can pick up adslr and shoot away, that makes them a photographer. most of these type of photographers last acouple of months and then put the camera away till later. Never to be picked up again. I think the true photographer(mosy of us//) will keep shooting and eventually learn all about their camera, so that they can repeat again and again high quality images. What they do with thses images is up to them. I believe that mosy of us that stick to it will set ourselves high levels of achievment and the happy snappers will be left far behind.
The pictures on fb etc usually stay their for months at a time, in my gallery i change images around constantly to keep afresh approach. We the hardened ones will still be here when the happy snappers have long gone.....hopefully.